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Course details

With an excellent employment rate for graduates, our postgraduate diploma combines academic study with practical professional training, including six weeks of work placement. Teaching staff on the programme are qualified and experienced career advisers and bring additional specialist expertise to the course.

You will acquire effective interpersonal communication skills for one-to-one career guidance, working with groups and via online media. You will learn and put into practice the latest counselling techniques, while developing the necessary research and teamwork skills to carry you into your own successful career.

The skills taught are transferable to many other roles in employment, education and training.

Former students have gone on to work in education-industry liaison, and projects promoting mentoring or equality and diversity.

How you’ll be taught

You will learn by a variety of teaching methods including lectures, tutorials, visits to employers, and independent study.

Career counselling skills are developed via individual coaching with an experienced careers adviser.

Assessments

No exams

Essays

Professional reports

Case studies

Group project

Observation

Work placement

Six weeks of work placement

Facilities
Based at our Sighthill Campus, students on the programme have access to a suite of interview training rooms equipped with CCTV facilities.

Modules

Modules that you will study* as part of this course

Career Counselling and Coaching
(
CRG11121
)

This module is intended to develop the skills, techniques and understanding necessary to deliver effective career guidance to individuals. You will be introduced to concepts from counselling and coaching psychology which underpin this module and their application in a career guidance context. The commonalities and differences between counselling and coaching will be explored. A key element is learning how to develop and sustain constructive working relationships with individual clients and becoming skilled at supporting clients to identify and address their career development needs. Your practical skills will be developed by background reading, observing experienced practitioners, using role-play, feedback on performance, discussion and reflecting on practice.

Career Development Theory
(
CRG11106
)

This module will assume no prior knowledge of psychology or sociology. Career theories will be compared and contrasted. The relationship between theory and practice will be explored, while placing guidance in its political context. Every opportunity will be taken to relate the value of theory to the practical day to day work of professional careers advisers. Psychometric testing and other assessment practices will be explored in relation to their underpinning theory.

Career Learning
(
CRG11122
)

This module is focused on designing and developing career-related learning experiences for pupils, students, and other service users. There are two main topics to the module. Firstly, there is a focus on the skills to design and deliver interactive group work. Secondly, a focus on learning programmes to deliver career education. For the first topic you will be supported to develop the skills to design, lead and facilitate an active, participative career-related learning experience for a group. You will also develop skills for learning in groups. You will build on this in the second topic by extending your learning beyond stand-alone events, and develop skills to design longer programmes of career learning. This will involve exploring the career education curriculum in educational institutions.

This learning will be underpinned by analysing theories and concepts of career learning.

Contemporary Guidance Practice
(
CRG11123
)

This module will examine contemporary approaches to career guidance practice and the influence of underpinning theoretical concepts. You will explore new approaches to delivery of services, including use of new counselling techniques, assessment tools and guidance delivered at a distance (including e-mail, social media, interactive web services and telephone).

You will develop skills to begin to operate as an autonomous reflective practitioner, integrating information from diverse sources to refine your professional practice and incorporate the values and ethics of the profession into your work.

Education and Labour Markets
(
CRG11126
)

The module will give you a broad understanding of structures in education and employment, as well as government training and schemes to combat unemployment. You will be supported to undertake field research experience on visits to opportunity providers, which will give specific examples to balance the overview provided by formal teaching input. This culminates in an industry specific project which integrates the collection of LMI, making sense of the information and then presenting knowledge in accessible ways. This provides a holistic and experiential view of labour markets as they relate to the work of career practitioners.

Policy and contexts for practice
(
CRG11103
)

History, development, structure and function of career guidance servicesThe relationship between policy and practice and social justiceThe impact of government policy, notably devolution, equality legislation and social inclusionService level responses to equality of opportunity and social justicePartnership working and locating guidance providers within networksKey service functions including marketing, quality assurance, client management systemsScreening and the identification of client needs

English language requirements

This may not apply if you have completed all your school qualifications in English, or your undergraduate degree was taught and examined in English (within two years of starting your postgraduate course). Check our country pages to find out if this applies to you.

Fees & funding

The course fees you'll pay and the funding available to you will depend on a number of factors including your nationality, location, personal circumstances and the course you are studying. We also have a number of bursaries and scholarships available to our students.

In addition to University fees there are two other mandatory charges for this programme. Student membership and registration for the professional body qualification amounts to £365.00, which is payable to the Career Development Institute (CDI). All applicants must undergo a criminal record check via the Disclosure Scotland ‘Protecting Vulnerable Groups’ (PVG): The fee for this is £59.00 (reduced to £18.00 if you are already in the PVG scheme).